Okay, okay, let's take it from here...

January 22, 2011

Pressure Sounds' latest release is a collection of Lee Perry's early reggae scorchers called High Plains Drifter.

From 1968 to 1973 Lee Perry was truly finding his stride as a producer. After making a splash with "People Funny Boy", Scratch quickly became a force to be reckoned with: he founded his own Upsetter record label, had top ten hits in England, and made crucial collaborations with the Wailers and Junior Byles, creating some of reggae's finest moments in the process. During this time, Scratch's productions were also at their most upsetting, featuring samples, sound effects, wild DJ cuts, and other innovative touches that were years ahead of their time. While most reggae fans revere Scratch for his epochal Black Ark material, the music he produced during these early years stands out as some of the tightest and grooviest music to come out of Jamaica.

High Plains Drifter contains 20 tracks of lost gems ranging from spooky Upsetters instrumentals to reggae ravers by vocal trios such as The Bleechers and The Mellotones. The collection has been compiled from obscure Jamaican singles and one dub plate ("Don't Want To Lose You" by an unknown vocalist).

If you listen closely, High Plains Drifter showcases many of Perry's musical and pop culture passions, from soul to spaghetti westerns to rhythm and blues. The collection also contains a few revelations for serious Upsetter trainspotters – Busty Brown's "It's Growing" is almost unrecognizable as the basis for the eerie "Return Of The Super Ape" almost a decade later; "Buttoo Girl" by The Inspirations uses the well-known "Shocks Of Mighty" rhythm track.

Although the title of the compilation suggests a collection of spaghetti western-inpired numbers, it's mainly soul and blues inspired reggae here. Dave Barker's "Sitting And Waiting" is a terrific cover of "Waiting And Drinking", a jump blues track by Calvin Boze that Scratch might have heard on a Jamaican sound system in his younger days. The soul highlights come from "Ain't No Love" by Jimmy and The Inspirations (a cover of Eddie Floyd's "I've Never Found A Girl") and Busty Brown's "It's Growing". The spaghetti western sound is heard in the title track (an alternate version of "Dig Your Grave" by The Upsetters), Count Sticky's "Boss" (a minimal DJ number) and "The Man With No Name", which sounds more like a Lloyd Charmers Hippy Boys number than the Upsetters. Perhaps my favourite track on the album is "Amigo", a stripped down alternate version of one of my favourite Upsetters tunes, "Sipreano". While not as great as the original, it's a kooky and enjoyable organ skank.

Although most of the album are straight up reggae ravers, there are also a few well chosen roots tracks, notably "Awake" by The Ethiopians (available from Pressure Sounds as a 7" single) and the doleful "Iniquity Workers" by the Faithful Brothers. Also notable is a Junior Byles track – always a cause for celebration, even if it is a rather lightweight calypso number, "Rub Up Festival 71".

High Plains Drifter will be released on February 14 2012 on CD format and double vinyl LP with limited edition artwork.

December 13, 2011

Pressure Sounds will be releasing four new Lee Perry 7" singles in January 2012, followed by a new compilation.

The four singles are rare tracks from 1968-73, including "Awake" by The Ethiopians, "Ain't No Love" by Jimmy & The Inspirations, "Rockfort Psychedelion" by Count Sticky and "High Plains Drifter" by The Upsetters.

The singles will be followed by the album High Plains Drifter in February 2012, a collection of Upsetting productions from the pre-Black Ark days that range from soul-flavoured reggae to spaghetti western Upsetters numbers. While it's always fantastic to hear more Black Ark material, a collection of early Scratch productions looks very tasty.

There will also be a limited edition 12" single of the George Faith roots track "Guide Line" including the original vocal and version and two Perry-esque remixes by Dougie Conscious.

More details about these Upsetting releases at the Pressure Sounds web site.

November 12, 2011

This month sees two new Lee Perry releases of note, one a curious candidate for reissue, the other a forgotten piece of Black Ark soul.

The Return of Pipecock Jackxon is a strange album that was originally issued in 1980 and has just been re-released by Honest Jon's in the UK. The story behind this album is rather fascinating: in 1979, a Dutch impresario named Henk Targowski travelled to Jamaica and contacted Lee Perry with the intent of releasing some of his material in Europe. What started out as an attempt at a business deal soon snowballed into a crazy and overwhelming situation which concluded with Scratch dismantling and destroying the Black Ark before leaving Jamaica for good a year later. Pipecock Jackxon was the result of this imbroglio, an odd mix of 1978 out takes from the Roast Fish, Collie Weed And Cornbread album as well as new material recorded at the Black Ark. While it has some enjoyable moments, it is a decidedly uneven and unfinished sounding album. As Scratch later said of the release, "They were in a haste to catch a flight that isn't ready. If I have an album, I have to be there, I have to mix my album. So it's a bad spell me cast 'pon them, them fall into the twilight zone."

The Honest Jon's reissue makes an attempt to rescue the album from the "twilight zone" Scratch describes. While the original LP was clearly put together in some haste and haphazardly released, this reissue presents it as a more finished document, cutting out the odd pieces of interview clips with Scratch that were a part of the original. In the discography, I describe Pipecock Jackxon as "a strangely enjoyable album" but really have to wonder why it was chosen by Honest Jon's for re-release. At a time when so little reggae is being reissued, it would make more sense to seek out some of the stronger Black Ark material out there (such as the Anachron collection Turn And Fire, a set of killer Black Ark discomixes). An interesting but hardly essential release.

A more satisfying offering is Lee "Scratch" Perry Presents Candy McKenzie, recently released in a limited edition LP from Trojan. Candy McKenzie was a young British singer who first met Lee Perry in London in 1977. Later, she travelled to Jamaica and along with Aura Lewis and Pamela Reed sang as Full Experience, a trio that cut some very promising material at the Black Ark but ultimately didn't get a chance to fulfill their potential. McKenzie recorded an album's worth of material with Lee Perry that remained mostly unreleased until this new Trojan album. The recent Pressure Sounds collection Return Of Sound System Scratch gave us a hint of McKenzie's true talent with "Long Enough" (AKA "Walking In The Sun") which really showcases McKenzie's bold, soulful voice much better than her previously released material, the fun but mediocre "Breakfast In Bed" and "Disco Fits". As Trojan's Laurence Cane-Honeysett notes, the music from the album is really "a variety of high quality music that bordered on both the sublime and the ridiculous." As mentioned earlier, at a time when so little reggae is being reissued, let's hope the album contains more of the sublime and less of the ridiculous.

September 5, 2011

Lee Perry's latest album is a very likeable collaboration with Bill Laswell called Rise Again. When it comes to Scratch's modern solo work, who he works with is an important barometer for what the finished product will be like, so on the heels of the excellent Mighty Upsetter album with Adrian Sherwood, it's good news that the Upsetter has teamed up with the talented Laswell for his latest offering.

According to music critic Chris Brazier, "Laswell's pet concept is 'collision music' which involves bringing together musicians from wildly divergent but complementary spheres and seeing what comes out." Certainly this concept wouldn't be lost on Lee Perry, whose own approach to music involves a lot of diverse influences and eclectic elements.

Although Scratch claims that he recorded his vocals for Rise Again in bits and pieces while on tour rather than spend any serious time with Laswell in the studio, the end result is quite coherent. Keeping in the tradition of featuring "special guests" (who, like Scratch, no doubt recorded their parts in bits and pieces rather than a Black Ark style jam session with Laswell at the mixing desk), the album features Sly Dunbar, Tunde Adebimpe from TV On The Radio as well as the unforgettable vocals of Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw. Along with Mighty Upsetter, Rise Again represents some of Scratch's best work in recent years.

Read a review of Rise Again by Rowan Savage, a review by Patrice Knap, and check out an interview with Scratch by Doug Heselgrave at United Reggae.

April 11, 2011

Pressure Sounds upsets with the amazing sequel to Sound System Scratch, Return Of Sound System Scratch. This incredible collection of Black Ark dub plates and heavy roots music is now available on CD, MP3 and double LP; serious collectors will want to check for the limited edition double LP. As if all of this wasn't enough, Pressure Sounds have also come up with a cool 7" single of "Strong Drink", a melodica cut of Junior Murvin's "False Teacher" featuring a mind-bending dub plate version on the B-side.

Return Of Sound System Scratch is arguably a stronger collection than Sound System Scratch. Sound quality is better throughout (although audiophiles always seem to find something to moan about when it comes to reggae) and the choice of material – almost everything is previously unreleased – is excellent. Although all of the tracks are great, a few deserve special mention. The first revelation is the previously unreleased "Righteous Land" by Aleas Jube; while Jube's vocals are nothing special, the jaunty rhythm track is a delight, especially when stripped down on its dub version, "Righteous Rocking". Junior Murvin's terrific version of the Impressions' sublime "People Get Ready" is here as "Get Ready" in a seldom-heard alternate mix. Another revelation comes from Full Experience vocalist Candy Mackenzie, who performs a gritty cover of Jeff Barry's "Walkin' In The Sun", retitled "Long Enough". Mackenzie's brassy vocals give the song an authenticity that is lacking on the original tune; perhaps Scratch was inspired by the later B.B. King version. Leo Graham fans will be happy to hear "Revelation Time", a sterling roots number that is reminiscent of Leo's Joe Gibbs single "Perilous Time". The melancholy "Darkness In The City" by Jimmy Riley has always been one of my favourite early Black Ark tracks. It's a harrowing tune that paints a vivid picture of urban violence on top of a bouncy, minimalist keyboard skank. Mistakenly credited to Judge Winchester on the 1974 Black Art single, it's nice to see this haunting roots track see the light of day again. And of course there are the dub plates and alternate mixes of well known tunes such as "I've Got The Groove" by George Faith, the Upsetters' "Enter The Dragon" and Scratch's powerful "Jah Jah Ah Natty Dread", here in previously unheard, extra Upsetting, outer space style.

In a word, outstanding. Return Of Sound System Scratch proves that we're not scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Lee Perry releases, because Scratch had a very deep barrel.

March 1, 2011

Pressure Sounds drops another amazing Lee Perry collection in April with The Return Of Sound System Scratch, an incredible 18 track set of more unreleased dub plates and rare Black Ark material.

Apparently the treasure trove of rare Lee Perry dub plates that was uncovered for last year's Sound System Scratch was bigger than we thought! With the exception of three tracks, everything on Return Of Sound System Scratch is previously unreleased. Highlights include the devastating "Darkness In The City" by Jimmy Riley (mistakenly credited to Judge Winchester on the 1974 Black Art single), a dub plate mix of "Jah Jah Ah Natty Dread" by Lee Perry, and the unreleased "Righteous Land" by the mysterious Aleas Jube.

As with Sound System Scratch, Pressure Sounds will be releasing the collection on CD and double LP and also has some new 7" singles in the works. Amazing!

While Trojan is content with releasing yet another Lee Perry collection with old chestnuts like "Return Of Django", Pressure Sounds digs deep and comes up with another stunning release of rare material. How they keep on doing it, I don't know – but I'm very glad that they are!

I'm still tinkering with and making new additions to the discography, including a listing of the nice UK Black Art singles that I had overlooked for a long time as well as the Pressure Sounds 7" releases of "Dub Plate Pressure" and "Chim Cherie ". It's certainly fun to be adding new singles to the discography in the age of MP3s!

February 21, 2011

A few updates to the Eternal Thunder discography, including the excellent Pressure Sounds dub plate compilation Sound System Scratch and Trojan's Sipple Out Deh collection. As you browse through the 7" singles section, watch for a few titles that link up to pages that provide more information about the song. And I've also updated the popular Bogus section, where you can learn which Scratch collections to avoid. Thankfully, a survey of Amazon shows that there are certainly a lot less of these bogus collections out there than before, but unfortunately bootleggers and pirates live on.

Trojan has announced a new Lee Perry collection called Reggae Genius: 20 Upsetter Classics. While I give Trojan credit for including a couple of interesting choices on this collection, the track listing is mainly a well worn set of songs that will be completely humdrum to any serious fan. (Does Trojan really need to include "Tighten Up" on another CD? My calculations show that this is now the ten zillionth time.) I suppose that with the music industry being in the doldrums at the moment, Trojan has to play it safe and go with material that has a proven track record, but surely a collection of more obscure Lee Perry material would sell better than yet another CD with "Return Of Django" and "Police And Thieves".

Speaking of obscure Lee Perry material, check out the excellent Black Ark Nuggets channel on YouTube. It features nothing but rare Black Ark singles, including gems like "Who Feels It Knows It" by The Avengers and "Give Jah Praise" by Norris Reid. This is the kind of material that should be rescued from vinyl oblivion and released on CD...

And while still on the YouTube tip, check out this wonderfully kooky video of "I Am The Upsetter":

January 31, 2011

January 4, 2011

Last year was a sad one for reggae veterans. Fans mourned the passing of Vivian Jackson, Lynn Taitt, Sugar Minott, Sonia Pottinger and Gregory Isaacs in 2010 and as the year ended, we had another name to add to the list.

Glenroy "Capo" Adams passed away on December 17 at the age of 65 in Jamaica. Glen suffered a stroke earlier in the year and although he was on the road to recovery, his condition worsened at the end of the year and he died after spending a couple weeks in the hospital, surrounded by family and friends.

Glen was best known for his time behind the keyboards in the Hippy Boys and later the Upsetters, but his musical career went much deeper than many people realize. He was born in 1945, and like so many Jamaican youth, music became Glen's greatest passion. While he was a teenager, Glen sang in a vocal group and later teamed up with Ken Boothe as Glen and Ken, coming in second place in the 1966 Festival Song Competition with "I Remember". While earning a living as a tailor, Glen worked with Duke Reid at Treasure Isle as an informal musical director and talent scout. He went on to cut a series of rocksteady singles for "Bunny" Lee and also sang in an early Pioneers line up, recording a few songs with the group including "Shake It Up".

A definitive moment for Glen came at a session for Lee in 1968. He was asked to play organ when the regular keyboard player didn't show up for a session. While his style was rudimentary, his keyboard work added a certain vibe to the recordings. Encouraged by this unexpected acclaim for his work, he further honed his keyboard skills and before long Glen was a regular session musician.

Glen's next musical project was one of the bands that he is best known for. He formed the Hippy Boys with guitarist Alva "Reggie" Lewis, bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett and his brother Carlton Barrett on drums. The group cut a series of wild and groovy instrumentals including "Death Rides A Horse" and "Psychedelic Reggae" as well as backing Max Romeo on his rude hit "Wet Dream". The Hippy Boys performed on sessions for a variety of producers, including Bunny Lee, Joe Gibbs and Sonia Pottinger, who produced their only LP, Reggae With The Hippy Boys, in 1969.

Fate stepped in when in November 1969 the Upsetters famous "Return Of Django" became a top 10 hit in England and the band was invited to travel overseas and tour the country. The original Upsetters were unable to commit to the tour and so Lee "Scratch" Perry approached the Hippy Boys to take their place. And so it was that the Hippy Boys became the new Upsetters.

The band toured England to great acclaim and performed on Top Of The Pops. Upon their return to Jamaica, the Upsetters were rather frustrated with Perry, who apparently had taken the lion's share of the money from the tour. At this time, Bob Marley had been following the Upsetters with great interest and was amazed that the Upsetters had been so popular overseas. Before long, Marley talked The Upsetters into abandoning Perry and joining the Wailers.

The sessions that Glen Adams and friends recorded with the Wailers and Lee Perry proved to be a high point not only in their careers but in the history of reggae. The chemistry between Perry and Marley, the Wailers and the Upsetters proved to be phenomenal. Together, they produced classic songs like "Small Axe", "Duppy Conqueror", "400 Years", and many others that changed the course of reggae and laid the foundation for Bob Marley's subsequent success. One of the most famous Perry productions from these sessions was the mesmerizing "Mr. Brown". The song – a spooky story of a man who dies and is reincarnated as a crow who perches on his own coffin on the way to the funeral – was written by Glen Adams who also provided the unforgettable organ work on the song.

In 1972, the band went their separate ways when the Barrett brothers became a permanent part of the Wailers band. Glen remained with Perry for a short time and a few years later left Jamaica for the United States, settling in Brooklyn in 1975. From there, he started his own record label, Capo, and for the remainder of the decade cut some very funky reggae and disco tunes as the Glen Adams Affair, including the dancefloor favourite "Just A Groove" and the early hip hop number "Chicken Scratch" with DJ Freeze.

For the next 20 years, Glen stayed active, working on a wide variety of projects and recordings. He played piano and keyboards for New York-based Reggae producers Brad Osbourne and Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes, and more recently worked with old friends Susan Cadogan and Keith Rowe as well as popular dancehall singer Shaggy. Although he had mostly been sitting in the producer's chair and in the studio for many years, Glen finally returned to live performances, touring the USA and Europe in 2002 with ska revivalists The Slackers and played occasional shows with the Jammyland All Stars.

Glen suffered a stroke in early 2010 and remained in poor health for the rest of the year. While visiting Jamaica with his wife Judy, his condition suddenly deteriorated and he was admitted to hospital. Although his family remained hopeful of a recovery, Glen passed away on December 17.

A YouTube search for "Glen Adams" reveals many obscure records and live performances, a lifetime of music that will no doubt be rediscovered now that Glen is gone. On his Facebook page, Glen's description of himself was simply "I don't like to big myself up. I am humble in the way Jah want I to be." With such a rich musical legacy behind him, Glen's modesty is just as impressive as his career.

Read the complete article at United Reggae »

Listen to Glen Adams interviewed by Carter Van Pelt »

December 5, 2010

The latest Lee Perry release to make a buzz with fans is Dub Treasures From The Black Ark, a new compilation from the dubious Jamaican Recordings label. Jamaican Recordings have a history of releasing interesting but questionable collections of rare reggae and dub; some seem to be genuine while others have clearly been overdubbed or remixed and presented as "lost" or "unreleased". Sadly, the latter seems to be true with Dub Treasures, which should really be called Dubious Treasures.

At first listen, the tracks on Dub Treasures do sound like Black Ark productions, but wait – isn't that a Morwells tune ("Bald Head") that's been subjected to a lot of phasing and renamed "Covenant Dub"? And isn't "Flut In The Ark" actually "Shooter Dub" by King Tubby, a Leonard Chin production, also being subjected to some phasing in a crude attempt to replicate the Black Ark sound? Other frauds are more interesting, such as "Hold Fast Dub", which seems to be a track from the infamous Mike Brooks collection Solid Ground, a set of bogus Black Ark tracks that were clumsily edited and overdubbed in the 1990s by Brooks and passed off as lost master tapes. It's basically a dub version of the Heptones "Crying Over You" with some strange vocals from Brooks thrown into the mix. "Vampire" (the Upsetters version of "Mr. Brown") shows up as the oddly-titled "Ox Man Dub", but isn't a Black Ark production.

I could give a track-by-track analysis of the entire album, but suffice it to say that very few of the tracks on Dub Treasures are actually from the Black Ark, they are not rare, and they are all being presented as something that they're not. It's sad that in a time where we have so few companies re-releasing vintage reggae that Jamaican Recordings has to put out a bogus collection like Dub Treasures instead of giving us something more bona fide.

October 28, 2010

Reggae historian Steve Barrow once described his role as the A&R man for his venerable reissue label Blood & Fire as "rescuing music from vinyl oblivion". Certainly any serious fan of Jamaican music will be familiar with "vinyl oblivion" as they spend years building up a decent collection of records. Even a humble collector like myself (who only discovered reggae well into the CD era) will soon learn about the often bewildering world of collecting Jamaican music: hundreds of labels, limited edition pressings, songs mistakenly credited to another artist, mysterious blank label records and other fascinating enigmas.

Beyond collecting, creating any discography of Jamaican music can be difficult, given the often haphazard nature of record production in Jamaica. When it comes to tackling a discography that accounts for the hundreds of releases that producer Lee Perry has been involved with over a 40-year career, spanning decades and continents, you are left with a Herculean task, or at least a task best performed by the very dedicated and the very patient.

Jeremy Collingwood spent more than 10 years creating Kiss Me Neck, drawing upon an earlier discography he co-authored with David Katz, Give Me Power, in 2003. With so much new information on Perry's music being discovered over the past decade and shared in an unprecedented way through the internet, in Collingwood's own words, he had to start from scratch with Scratch. Kiss Me Neck comes packed with hundreds of rare photos, label scans and newspaper clippings from Collingwood's personal collection. It presents Lee Perry's music as more than just a dry list of labels and matrix numbers; these records - and their related emphera - are pieces of history.

The book contains a two part biography that gives a breezy overview of Perry's career from his Studio One days until the present, nicely illustrated with many rare photos. The heart of the book, the discography, is broken down into six sections: Jamaican Singles, Albums, UK Singles, UK and European Discos, US and Canadian Singles, and US Discos. Most fascinating are the sections that deal with the aforementioned "vinyl oblivion": 50 pages of appendices that include a listing of obscure records with a Perry connection, dub plates, a listing of the samples Perry used, a comprehensive listing of blank label singles, a list of reissued singles and more.

In short, Kiss Me Neck is a remarkable accomplishment. It's a book for serious Lee Perry fans written by a serious Lee Perry fan. It goes without saying - given the obsessive nature of record collectors - that reggae nerds and trainspotters will marvel at the detail it goes into, even if they will no doubt find omissions, errors and finer points to quibble about. (For example, I noticed that Perry's 2003 Jamaican single "Heavy Respect" on Yam Euphony, listed in my discography, isn't included in Kiss Me Neck). But can there ever be a book that gets everything right?

While it pains me to be too critical about such an impressive endeavour, Kiss Me Neck is unfortunately marred by several flaws that distract from the wealth of information in the book. These have less to do with the content itself, but the way that it is presented on the page. The main critique is that the text throughout is in drastic need of an edit. While Collingwood's informal style of writing is quite likeable, it could certainly do with some edits to tighten it up for readers. Also, the entire book is filled with distracting typos and spelling mistakes (for example, Vivian Jackson's name being misspelled as "Vivain") as well as odd capitalizations and punctuation throughout. Given that every word processing program has a spell checker and every publishing house has a proof reader, these errors are really unforgivable. The layout of the book also needs a critical eye cast over it. Since we are dealing with hundreds of pages of listings, it's important that they should be laid out in a logical and clear way. While the section on Jamaican singles has an easy to follow layout, the UK singles section has a different, more obtuse layout - why?

Ironically, the "What About?" appendix - where Collingwood makes an attempt to sort out the confusion surrounding the many obscure records that may or may not have a definite Lee Perry connection - ends up being confusing to navigate due to the choice of letters and numbers to define the various sections and listings. Once again, the information is fascinating, but the way it's presented leaves something to be desired. The "What About?" section also includes a four page Aston "Familyman" Barrett discography, listing records that have nothing to do with Lee Perry, so it's unclear as to why it was included.

Despite these oversights and unfortunate distractions, Kiss Me Neck is a monumental survey of Lee Perry's music. Whether you've been a dedicated Scratchologist from the 1970s and have most of these records on your shelf, or - like me - are a serious fan who wants a comprehensive listing of almost everything in the Lee Perry catalogue, Kiss Me Neck is essential.

Kiss Me Neck is available through Cherry Red Books or Amazon UK.

June 27, 2010

Jeremy Collingwood has an impressive list of credentials in the reggae reissue scene, being responsible for many quality compilations for Trojan, Island and EMI, including the excellent I Am The Upsetter box set. One of his latest projects was to compile the new Pressure Sounds compilation, Sound System Scratch, a collection of rare Black Ark dub plates. With the reggae message board crowd buzzing about this release, I spoke with Jeremy about this Upsetting compilation.

How did Sound System Scratch come about? Rumours are that someone with an impressive dub plate collection offered them to Pressure Sounds. Where did the material come from?

Indeed, a collection of dub plates and tapes came Pressure Sounds' way and I did the honours. These dub plates were in and around the scene for years, as far as I know.

What is the sound quality like? Dub plates aren't well known for high-fidelity sound! Are they being presented "as is", or were some of the crummy sounding ones cleaned up? How many are taken from master tapes?

All tracks are either from dub plates or from tapes from which dub plates were cut. About one third of the songs are from tape. There were some technical issues, but these were resolved with no significant change to their sound. Of course, it's not an ECM Jazz release standard! This set is about great music that could only be heard in Jamaican and UK based sound systems. What I'm so pleased about is that after so many collections that have little to do with Lee Perry, this is 100% bona fide Black Ark music. It's not half finished rhythm tracks like some CDs which have appeared over the past few years and been tinkered with years later. There's unknown tunes and new mixes of well known rhythms. And it's all presented with typical Pressure Sounds care and style – there's a reason Pressure Sounds has been going so long!

What sound systems used these dub plates? I always figured that Scratch was too eccentric to deal with the "mainstream" reggae scene in Jamaica, like sound systems.

The particular sound systems are lost in the mists of time – there are no sounds named on the plates. I think Scratch lost the Jamaican vibe after about '75 or '76. But he was popular in the UK from early 1970s right up until the end of the decade. Scratch was always up for a little extra money by selling plates to sound men and he seems to have made many dub plate mixes. I think by 1978, he was tricky to deal with but still needed money, so he kept on mixing!

One interesting conjecture about Sound System Scratch is that some of these tunes have been overdubbed, and that the tunes credited to Augustus Pablo aren't really Pablo on the melodica.

Well, what can I say? Let dem 'ear de tunes, less they look foolish! Lol Bell Brown and I put out an Augustus Pablo discography, during which time I learned the difference between Pablo, Tosh, Glen Brown, Bobby Kalphat, and Family Man on the melodica...never mind Dr. Pablo! (laughs) When one of the mento collections I put out was released, I got an e-mail accusing me of overdubbing certain elements on several tracks. All tracks were dubbed straight off 78s! I tend to get between one and three abusive e-mails per release…you would think people had something better to do. It's the same with my sound system. I get people telling me this isn't right, that's wrong...it drives you mad.

I also spoke to Jeremy about an exciting new project he's just completed called Kiss Me Neck: A Lee Perry Companion.

Kiss Me Neck will be released later on this summer by Cherry Red Books. It's a Lee Perry "musicography", as I call it. An old fashioned discography, but with lots of bonus features: photos, commentary and the like. Kiss Me Neck is similar to my earlier Scratch discography, Give Me Power, but I started from ground zero. I found so many mistakes and additions that needed to be done on Give Me Power, I decided to start from scratch with Scratch (laughs). Ten years of research! This new book has loads more information and new sections, including matrix numbers, a guide to blank label records and more. I just looked at the last printer's proofs – it should be out by August.

For more information, check out www.traxonwax.net.

June 21, 2010

For more than 30 years, dub plates - exclusive, one-of-a-kind mixes for sound systems - have been a "hidden" part of reggae's history. Pressure Sounds' next release will showcase some of that hidden history, Black Ark style.

Although Lee Perry's distinctive, eccentric productions from the Black Ark stood outside of the reggae mainstream, Scratch produced many dub plates between 1973 - 1979, creating exclusive, mind-bending mixes that have never been heard since.

Sound System Scratch features 19 Black Ark dub plates as well as a treasure trove of rare photographs by Dennis Morris, archive material and sleeve notes by well-known reggaeologist Jeremy Collingwood. Although Scratch was well known for remixing some of his favourite rhythms over and over again to create several different versions, these rare dub plates will come as a revelation even to the most hardcore Scratch fans. It promises to be one of the most exciting Lee Perry collections for many years.

From the Pressure Sounds website: "The exclusive mixes showcased on this release have never been heard before outside of sound system dances. Some will be familiar through their commercial incarnations, such as 'Bucky Skank', 'History' and 'Groovy Situation', but here they have been pushed and pulled, coaxed and cajoled in hitherto unexplored and previously unimagined directions. This is music from a man coming to the end of his tether."

1. Dread Dub Plate - Lee Perry
2. Lama Lava Mix One - Augustus Pablo & The Upsetters
3. Groove Dubber - The Upsetters
4. Groove Rider - The Upsetters
5. Jucky Skank - The Upsetters
6. Chim Cherie - The Upsetters
7. The Rightful Organiser - Lee Perry & The Upsetters
8. Stagger - Lee Perry & The Upsetters
9. Big Neck Cut - Lee Perry & The Upsetters
10. Zeal Of The Lord - The Upsetters
11. Dub Of The Lord - The Upsetters
12. Returning Wax - The Upsetters
13. Bush Dub Corntrash - Winston Wright & The Upsetters
14. From Dub Four - Clive Hylton & The Upsetters
15. Roots Train Number Two - Junior Murvin & The Upsetters
16. Locks In The Dublight - Lee Perry & The Upsetters
17. Moonlight Version - The Upsetters
18. Dub History - Carlton Jackson & The Upsetters
19. Living Dub - Keith Rowe & The Upsetters

Sound System Scratch will be released on August 31 on CD and double LP. As a tasty preview, Pressure Sounds has pressed a 7" single that features an exclusive B-side. It's been a long time since anyone has put out a really Upsetting Lee Perry collection, so maximum respect to Pressure Sounds for making this one happen.

April 28, 2010

I suppose it's not much of an update to say "there will be no more regular updates to this site", but that's the way it is. After 15 years, I don't feel like I have too much to add to Eternal Thunder and would rather concentrate on other endeavours. However, if and when there is some notable news about Lee Perry, I'll be certain to make a new entry.

It's ironic that Trojan's new Lee Perry collection is called Sipple Out Deh, because it's certainly sipple out there for all of our favourite reggae reissue labels. I find it strange to feel nostalgic for the 2000s, but it's true – there was so much great reggae being reissued by cool labels who knew what they were doing. At present, Blood and Fire is gone, Heartbeat lies dormant, Auralux and Hot Pot have vanished; only Pressure Sounds has survived the "golden years" of reggae reissues and continues to put out quality collections. Trojan is now just another brick in a vast wall after their parent company Sanctuary Records went bankrupt in 2007 and was bought by the gigantic Universal (who also own Island). Trojan's flood of releases from a few years ago has now slowed to a drip and their website is frustratingly stagnant. So I was pleasantly surprised to see a new, double CD Scratch collection in the works, even if it does contain a lot of predictable overlap from their previous releases.

However, what makes Sipple Out Deh worthwhile is the inclusion of some rare tracks that have never been released on CD (most notably the title track, the sizzling Jamaican mix of Max Romeo's "War Ina Babylon") as well as a few songs that were only available on now deleted Trojan collections such as Build The Ark and Open The Gate.

All things considered, Sipple Out Deh looks like a fresh compilation that's a nice update from previous Trojan sets.

Lee "Scratch" Perry & Friends: Sipple Out Deh
Best of the Black Ark Years: The Jamaican 7"s, 1974 to 1978

CD #1: 1974 - 1976
1. Enter The Dragon – The Upsetters
2. It Hurts So Good (aka Hurt So Good) – Susan Cadogan & The Mighty Diamonds
3. Babylon A Fall – King Burnett
4. Curley Locks – Junior Byles
5. Dreader Locks – Junior Byles & Lee Perry
6. Stay Dread – Lee Perry
7. Do It Baby (aka Nice And Easy) – Susan Cadogan
8. The Long Way – Junior Byles
9. Three Blind Mice – Max Romeo & The Upsetters
10. Three Times Three – King Tubbys
11. Bury The Razor – The Upsetters
12. Down Here In Babylon – Brent Dowe
13. Be Thankful (For What You’ve Got) – Bunny ‘Rugs’ Clarke
14. Woman’s Gotta Have It – Jimmy Riley
15. Bushweed Corntrash – Bunny & Ricky
16. Roast Fish And Corn Bread (Jamaican mix) – Lee Perry
17. Sipple Out Deh (Jamaican mix) – Max Romeo
18. Ital Corner – Prince Jazzbo
19. Police And Thieves – Junior Murvin
20. White Belly Rat – Lee Perry
21. Sufferer’s Time – The Heptones
22. A Wah Dat – Junior Dread
23. Mr Cop – Gregory Isaacs

CD #2: 1977 - 1978
1. Vibrate On (Jamaican mix) – Augustus Pablo & The Upsetters
2. Better Future – Errol Walker
3. Mistry Babylon – The Heptones
4. Stand Up – Eric Donaldson & The Keystones
5. No Peace – The Meditations
6. Ethiopia Land – Peter & Paul Lewis
7. My Little Sandra – Leo Graham
8. Green Bay Incident – Lord Sassafras
9. Think So – The Meditations
10. Home Guard – Michael Campbell (aka Mikey Dread)
11. Travelling – Debra Keese & The Black Five
12. Peace And Love – Shuamark & Robinson
13. Dread At The Control – Michael Campbell (aka Mikey Dread)
14. Forward With Jah Orthodox – Mystic I
15. Land Of Love – The Sons Of Light
16. Brother Noah – The Shadows
17. Give Thanks And Praise – Junior Ainsworth
18. Mr. Money Man – Danny Hensworth
19. Cross Over – Junior Murvin
20. Guideline – George Faith
21. Babylon Falling – The Heptones